Howdy, I"mNoodle, a new Op-Ed and Features writer for allkpop. I grew up inHouston, Texas and through my interest in Starcraft2, I"ve come to gain an interest in Korean music,television, and culture as a whole. My favorite solo artist is BoAand my favorite group is After School. I hope that I can neatly mergemy interest in kpop with my development as a writer to delivercontent that you can enjoy.

Life is full ofsurprises and every now and then you receive surprises within K-Pop that pleaseyou in an unexpected way. Here"s a list of my five pleasant surprises within thelast year of K-Pop that have left fans with a good aftertaste.

5dolls Gets Successfully Rebuilt asF-ve Dolls with "Can You Love Me"

5dolls was never very active,nor was their main group Co-ed School. After overa year without any releases and a scandal, the announcementof additional members and the re-branding as "F-ve Dolls" left thegroup with few lasting fans and a large mountain to climb in order toget back to the level of success that the group achieved with "LikeThis or That".

With their comeback single "Soulmate #1" lookingand sounding like a weak "Roly-Poly" rehash and the announcementthat Dani, the young and unproven member of T-ara N4, would befeatured on "Can You Love Me," expectations for the song werevery low.

But "Can You Love Me" turned out tobe one of the most underrated songs of 2013. It carries a verypleasant harmony and allows the members to showcase their vocaltalent. The new additions to the group get their chance to show thattheir inclusion was not for naught and allow the group to begin building an identity as the re-branded "F-ve Dolls." The use of Daniproved most surprising: CCM may not have given her a token rapsolo (her notes are pitched), but the unproven 14-year-old managed todo a good job, anyway. With this single, 5Dolls showed thatthey should not be looked over the next time they announce acomeback.

Lim Chang Jung"s "Open the Door"

Announced as a cover of theunderwhelming Wonder Boyz track, nobody was really sure quite what toexpect out of actor and veteran singer Lim Chang Jung"s release.

The musicvideo turned out to be super entertaining with a very fun dance andfunny story line. The song itself manages to sound catchier than theoriginal version and the overall product stands out as a success. A very nice and pleasant surprise.

Nine Muses Gets Productive

As a group ofmodels, Nine Muses" first few years had lineup changes and few produced songs. In 2010 they put out only two songs, in 2011 they became aseven member group and released only a single song, and in early 2012they added Kyung Li and put out their mini album Sweet Rendezvous.

But after adding SungA to the lineup in mid 2012, Nine Muses showeda surprisingly substantial increase in activities in 2013. Over theyear, the group released their second mini album as well as theirfirst full length album and two single albums. From January throughDecember, Nine Muses constantly placed themselves in the limelight,giving content to their starved existing supporters while gaining newfans.

Tiny-G"s "Miss You"

Tiny-G"sinitiation as a girl group full of short members standing 159cm (5"2") orshorter seemed like a weird concept at the start. Their debut hip-hopthemed music video featured a cringe-inducing part where they playbasketball and their second single"s aegyo concept didn"t reallystand out.

So it came as a surprise when their single "Miss You"ditched their previous showcasing of their height and hit the ballout of the park with one of the catchiest tunes of 2013. The song hasa guilt-free addictive chorus with good choreography to accompanyit, solid verses, and a nice high note in the bridge. Over a yearafter their debut, Tiny-G managed to strike gold with "Miss You".

Crayon Pop Makes it Big in SouthKorea

Crayon Pop debutedas simple girl group from a new company. Without the advantages ofbigger label, they focused on creating catchy and fun songs andmanage to gain a fair amount of attention from foreign fans sincetheir debut song "Bing Bing."

But struggling to get time on themajor music television shows in South Korea, the group remainedalmost unheard of in their home country and foreign fans wondered ifthey"d ever be able to generate enough revenue to keep them andChrome Entertainment from having to disband. And then Crayon Popreleased their music video for "Bar Bar Bar," which paired theirsignature simple and catchy songs with attention-drawing outfits andchoreography. The group"s recognition and popularity exploded andforeign fans no longer had to worry about Crayon Pop dying outwithout every achieving any success or recognition in their nativecountry of South Korea.

It was revealed that Girls' Generation Yuri along with Oh Sang Jin will be the MCs for 2013 Gaon Chart Kpop Awards which will be hold on February 12th at Seoul Olympic Park's Gymnastics Stadium.

Gaon Chart Kpop Awards is an awards show which focus on the sales of songs and album. For this year many stars are nominated such as Cho Yong Pil, PSY, Girls' Generation, EXO, Sistar, San-E, IU, Davichi, Dynamic Duo, 4Minute, Miss A, SoyuMad Clown, Seo In Guk, Jia and etc.

Billboard America chose EXO's "Growl" as the no.1 song in Top 20 Kpop Songs of 2013.

According to Billboard, "Growl" was the crown jewel in boy band EXO's fantastic 2013. While past singles like "Mama" and "Wolf" were based around complex concepts and busy production, "Growl" used a sparse, Southern hip-hop beat that let the 12 boys' talents shine through. A blend of rap, R and B melody and pop hooks, the breakout single had something for all listeners. Its accompanying video focused on a straight-forward, one-take video, again allowing for EXO's talents -- in this case, choreography -- to shine, not detracting from over-the-top high fashion. Along with high interest from the United States -- the boy band is the newest act to land among the top-selling K-pop tracks in America -- "Growl" solidifies EXO as the act to watch in K-pop's continuing international advancement."

EXO is steadily rising as one of the next top global stars. They have achieved many awards this year from Korea and China, such as 2 Daesang Awards from MelOn Music Award and MAMA, "Most Popular Group Award" from "Baidu The Hottest Awards","Best Group Award" at "Top Chinese Music Billboard Newcomer Awards"

Pledis Global Auditions in Brazil Pledis Entertainment, where Son Dam Bi, Kahi, After School, NU'EST and others are housed, will be holding auditions in Brazil.

On November 4, Pledis commented, "We are on the hunt for new faces to join our agency. We want to hold auditions outside of Korea in order to find more talented stars. We decided to host it in Brazil as Brazil has been showing great interest in K-pop these days."

Pledis is also the first agency to hold auditions in Brazil as well, causing much interest.

They will hold the auditions on December 14 in Brazil and look for not only singers but also actors, models and other categories as well.

They are currently looking for new faces that will upgrade the image of the agency for the upcoming years.

'Blurred Lines' Lawsuit: Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," which got Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs 2013 performance, was copped from two Marvin Gaye songs, according to a lawsuit by Marvin Gaye's family. Copyright claims also came against Kpop star IU this week, for new hit, "The Red Shoes." Kpop star Hyuna also raised eyebrows for similarities between the new Trouble Maker video "Now" and Rihanna's video for "We Found Love."

"Blurred Lines" is Robin Thicke's biggest hit. Marvin Gaye's children filed legal papers saying Robin Thicke stole Gaye's "After the Dance" for his song "Love After War." The family of the late Motown legend says Robin Thicke has a "Marvin Gaye fixation" and has copped more than a few licks from his idol.

Gaye's family is also suing the song publisher EMI April, which is owned by Sony/ATV. The suit says EMI breached a contract because it didn't protect Marvin Gaye's songs, tried to scare the family away from suing and didn't stay neutral in the fight. The also says EMI tried to make the Gaye family look bad in the press.

Kpop Star IU was also recently accused of plagiarism in her new single "The Red Shoes."

IU's "The Red Shoes" is being compared to Nekta's 2009 hit "Here's Us."

Kpop singer IU's "The Red Shoes" was written by Lee Min Soo and Kim Ee Na.

Marvin Gaye'sfamily says that should cost EMI the right to Marvin Gaye songs. EMI shouldn't profit from Marvin Gaye and they should lose all profits on "Blurred Lines." EMI should also lose the rights to administer Marvin Gaye's catalog, known as the "Prince of Soul."

Thick might have seen this coming. In August, Thicke preemptively protected "Blurred Lines" from claims against Marvin Gaye and Funkadelic's "Sexy Ways," along with his producers Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr. in California federal court. They claimed that a song that is "reminiscent of a 'sound' is not copyright infringement." In other words, they wanted to capture the feel and energy of the original recordings that made Gaye a star, but weren't actually stealing the song. They were paying the song homage.

Court papers indicate Frankie Gaye and Nona Gaye say the suit is about "blatant copying of a constellation of distinctive and significant compositional elements of Marvin Gaye's classic #1 song." They also say that Robin Thicke it in interviews with GQ and Billboard.

Thicke told GQ "Pharrell and I were in the studio and I told him that one of my favorite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye's 'Got to Give It Up.' I was like, 'Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove.' Then he started playing a little something and we literally wrote the song in about a half hour and recorded it."

After the original suit was filed, Thicke told TMZ: he didn't think of Marvin Gaye when writing "Blurred Lines."

The Gaye family says music critics at The New York Times, Vice, Rolling Stone and Bloomberg Businessweek all saw similarities between the Gaye songs and "Blurred Lines." Musicologist Judith Finell noticed "at least eight substantially similar compositional features" with Gaye's original. According to the court papers Finell said the signature phrase, vocal hook, backup vocal hook, their variations, and the keyboard and bass lines "far surpassing the similarities that might result from attempts to evoke an 'era' of music or a shared genre."

The suit also cites Thicke for "including the similar bridge and identical lyrics from Marvin Gaye's 'I Want You' in Thicke's similarly-themed work, 'Make U Love Me.' It also makes claims only over similarities between Thicke's "Love After War" and Gaye's "After the Dance."

Marvin Gaye's family claims that not only did EMI refuse to bring counterclaims after seeing a "renowned musicologist's report," but that it gave "strong biased support to the Blurred Writers."

EMI said the Gaye family guilty of "ruining an incredible song," "killing the goose that laid the golden egg" and being responsible for "Blurred Lines" not receiving an MTV Video Music Award.

Marvin Gaye's family accused EMI and Williams and Thicke reps of "the planting of a knowingly false story in the press that the Gaye Family supposedly turned down a "six figure settlement" (no such offer was made) in order to make them appear unreasonable."

Thicke's Lawyer, Howard King, told The Hollywood Reporter,"Plaintiffs anticipated a baseless counterclaim for copyright infringement when they filed their original complaint for declaratory relief, so no surprise there. What is surprising in their press-release-disguised-as-a-complaint (much of which will eventually be stricken by the court) is their acknowledgment that the Gaye family has no standing to bring a copyright claim. For this, they blame EMI, the administrator and registered copyright owner of the Marvin Gaye songs. Obviously, EMI, which is in the business of collecting substantial sums for actual infringements, regardless of the publishing affiliations of the infringers, consulted their own expert musicologists who gave the same opinion our 3 musicologists gave: The genres of the songs are the same, the notes are different. So whether or not plaintiffs are fans of Marvin Gaye is irrelevant; no infringement occurred here."

Today is the day that Dal Shabet, EXO-K, and SHINees fans are all been waiting for, KPop Republic 2013 in Manila, Press Conference and Concert.

《Press Conference》

Before the concert event, the organizers held a press conference at the Gateway Cinema5. Crispy Crunch and Soomin of April Kiss is the first act to present in the press con. They are also the front act of the said event. The duo, together with Soomin, really enjoyed staying here in Manilafor the first time.

They did a small performance of ODL (One Day Live) as requested by the fans. As for Filipino dishes, they said theyll try to eat Balot after the concert.

The beautiful ladies of Dal Shabet are next to set on press conference stage. This is their second time here in PH and they find it wonderful because of the nice weather and people living here. The group considers Beyonce, Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Rihanna as their idol. Dal Shabet thank their PH Darlings for inviting them here to perform for KPop Republic and they told the fans to keep in touch with them thru SNS.

Here comes the boys of EXO-K with their cute school uniform inspired outfit. Baekhyun, D.O., Kai, Sehun, Suho and Chanyeol enters the press const stage. They were asked if what would they name their fan club and they said that theres no official fan club name yet, if ever they have one, they will name it after their fans. This is their second here (first was in DKFC with EXO-M) in PH and they find it a beautiful country. If EXO will be given a longer chance to stay, the boys will visit Baguio for its fresh air and good environment. EXO-K, for the last time, promise fans that they will have fun at the concert.

And last, but definitely not the least, SHINees back SHINees back here in PH after 3 years and they are really excited to meet the fans again. The boys of SHINee, specially Jonghyun, got surprised when host, Ms. Park Jinri, translated her English question to Korean. Jonghyuns reaction was really epic. Huge eyes and endless smile One word to describe all PH fans, Taemin answered TREE because of everyones patience. If the boys were to meet their old selves, they will advise them to stay healthy and eat yummy foods. SHINees Diva, Key, describes his fashion sense as his identity. You can see him in his fasion. As for the main vocals, Jonghyun, he explains the lyrics he wrote for the songs included on their third album that is about one sided love and missing someone and as always SHINee promise his fans that they will have a great night.

The first question was their feelings and thoughts on their second visit in the Philippines.Keyanswered, "We are super excited to be here and to meet the fans once again. Were excited for the concert, and were going to have a great one tonight."

As a follow up, the host asked, "Now that youre back in the Philippines, is there a specific place or Filipino food in the Philippines youve been longing to visit or try to eat?"Jonghyun replied, "I havent tried sinigang, but I would love to try it. I would love to go to Cebu and Boracay."

When they were asked on one word they would use to describe their Filipino fans,Taemin gave this answer, "Namu (tree). Because you guys have been waiting for so long and waiting for us patiently. Tree would be one word to describe the Filipino fans."

Onew gave a very simple answer for the question 'Gaining all the success and receiving a lot of love from your fans all over the world, if you were to meet your old selves back in 2008, what would you advise him?'. He said, "I would like to say, Stay healthy and eat a lot of yummy food.

Key was asked, "Your fashion sense has drastically evolved through the years and people have been commenting a lot about it. How would you describe your own fashion sense and style?" He answered, "Myself?I think Im trying to show my identity through my fashion, maybe."

The next one was for Onew. The host asked, "Youre appearing on a sitcom these days. How do you feel about it?" Onew uttered, "Its my first time to try acting, so Im trying hard to be on the same level as the other actors."

Jonghyun was also asked this one, "Youve written the lyrics for the songs on SHINees 3rd album. Can you explain a little bit about the lyrics?" Heexplained, "Ive written two songs in the album.One is about one-sided love, and the next one is about missing someone. He has written the songs while looking at the moon."

Last but not least, "What are you planning on the show tonight?"Taemin promised,"We prepared a little gift for all the fans. I hope you guys enjoy it.Although Minho isnt here tonight, I hope you guys understandhes doing something else."

The first question was their feelings and thoughts on their second visit in the Philippines.Se Hun answered, "The Philippines is a beautiful country, and as the 2nd time, it has become more beautiful.We felt very welcomed at the airport because there were so many fans excited to see us."

As a follow up, they were asked on what Philippines' tourist spot they want to visit.Baek Hyunanswered, "I would like to go to Baguio because we heard it has fresh air and good environment,so we would like to go there with the members and relax and think about our holiday."

The host asked, "If you had the chance to name your own fanclub, what would you name and it and why?"Chan Yeol replied, "We do not have an official fanclub name yet, and we believe that the fanclub name should be named from our fans because that belongs to the fans.We are hoping to get more fanclub names suggested to us."

EXO-K promised to give a fun show:Baek Hyun said,"Weve been acting as EXO but especially for today, we are just EXO-K.We expect that well have fun on the show and hoping you guys will have fun too.Thank you so much, EXO-K!"Chan Yeol spoke the Filipino translation of 'I love you all',"Mahal ko kayo!"